"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 2 - Dragon Token" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

"Do you think Elidi flew to Stronghold?" Meiglan asked.

"I think it quite probable. She might even be there now."

"Not yet," Walvis corrected with a glance at the water clock in the corner. "She didn't stop to drink or feed. She must be exhausted."

Kierun spoke up for the first time. "Lady Ruala, who was that man who was shouting when the lamb was killed for Princess Sioned's dragon?"

The breath hissed through Chadric's teeth. "Master Nemthe, I'll take oath on it. And I'll take his tongue from his mouth if he opens it just once more."

The squire looked taken aback at such words from this kindly old man. "I'm sorry, your grace, I know I'm very stupid, but I don't understand why he was so angry."

Ruala stared at her shoes. Kierun lived at Dragon's Rest where a flock was kept specifically for the dragons. Of course he didn't understand.

"You're not stupid at all, Kierun," Audrite said. "He was angry because he thought we fed Elisel at the expense of tomorrow's dinner."

"ButЧit was for a dragon!"

Neither did the boy understand food supplies. Even after the long siege at Stronghold, it was incomprehensible to him that there might not be enough to eat. Ruala traded a glance with Audrite; what had been brought today would provide one meal, perhaps two. No more.

Maarken saw the look and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. But Kazander was the one who spoke.

"The hills are very fine hereabouts, my lady. I have a whim to go hunting tomorrow," he said, as casually as if it was to be a morning's pleasure instead of a dire necessity. "What do you fancy? Elk? Deer?"

"Whatever you like, my lord." She smiled suddenly. "Only please do bring back a rabbit for Master Nemthe's very own."

"A skinny one," Chadric seconded.

"With mange," Kierun added, startling himself and them. But he grinned as they laughed.

Maarken finished the last of his taze and pushed himself to his feet. "Well, I've lazed about enough. Meiglan, my dear, may I borrow your squire to help me make the rounds of the wounded?"

"Chayla has already done that," she replied. "But you're welcome to Kierun's assistanceЧas long as it's to your bed. The orders of your lady wife," she explained, blushing a little as he gave her a stare. "And your daughter, too."

"My women believe they command my every movement," he grumbled.

"Don't they?" Walvis asked innocently.

"Hmph. Kierun, as you're the heir to Lower Pyrme, one day you'll have to marry. But take my advice and do as your father didЧput it off until you find a quiet, meek, gentle girl like your mother."

Kierun's big gray eyes popped at the description. Many of the deadfalls his parents had sprung on the Vellant'im at Lower Pyrme had been of his mother's gleeful devising.

Maarken went on, "Speaking of autocratic ladies, where are mine?"

"Hollis is weaving Tobin to sleep, and Chayla's trying the same on Sioned," Ruala told him.

"Trying?"

"She closes her eyes and lies there still as a stone, but she's awake and Chayla knows it."